I don’t know if I should call this the week of the binder or the week of the forms.

 
Binders seem to be winning the battle. By that I mean they are actually losing the battle with regards to kid’s patience levels. We started with seven binders and I think six of them have met their demise in a burial behind the shed. The only sign they ever existed are the faint markings that under the right light look like they once said, “History” and “French” and the dividers which have mysteriously been relocated to the one, giant binder that made it out alive.

 
But the forms, ah the forms. Three kid’s worth of back-to-school forms.

 
I’ll admit (and I know I’m totally alone in this because a good parent would never), I have signed a couple of forms without even reading what I was signing. My kids have either been given permission to walk to the local library or I’ve signed them up to make breakfast for the homeless. I just got tired and the forms all started to look the same. I may have said it’s okay for my kids’ image to be added to a Donkey Day poster (which wouldn’t be the worst thing I suppose). If you want my attention, think of the back-to-school forms like your resume. Maybe use a different colour paper or add some graphics and not too long because the double-sided, Calibri font all start to look blurry after digging through my wallet for loose change to pay for a book I think we already have. So if my kid doesn’t show up for the chess tournament I signed them up for it’s because I thought I was ordering pizza for their lunches.

 
A couple of them asked for my signature and the date (I have no idea what month it is. I may have written January, 2013) and those are the forms I actually read and thought, huh, why am I being asked to sign this? It doesn’t ask my permission to do anything. It seemed to be some sort of itinerary of the school day events. Why is my permission required to ring the dismissal bell at 3pm? I thought this was just universally understood. Is this some sort of new, anonymous voting by proxy?

 
I’m joking because I’m exhausted.

 
From all the forms.

 
Thankfully, I have a number of binders to file them away.